Malaga beat Almeria to win Inter-Provincial Lawn Bowls Championship

The Malaga province representative team, known colloquially as Team Malaga, beat Team Almería in the third edition of the Andalusian Inter-Provincial Lawn Bowls Championship last week at the Lauro Golf Bowls Club in Alhaurín de la Torre.

It was a tournament that hadn't gone ahead since 2019 due to the pandemic and it was Malaga's third time winning the competition.

Each participating team is made up of twelve men and twelve women, who played their opponents in four sessions across two days. The sides then split into two rinks teams (four players) and a singles game, which was then followed by a triples and a pairs match on both days.

Over the course of the tournament, Team Malaga were shocked to be behind after the first session. Typically, the host side tends to have an advantage as they know how the green plays, but Almería turned things around to be 9-7 ahead, though Malaga did recover well in the second session, ending day one with a 17-15 lead.

Malaga played well and thwarted Almería attempts of getting back ahead in session three, which ended 25-23 for the hosts and was mostly dominated by the bad weather the province had been suffering.

The fourth and final session was easy cruising for Malaga, who only needed to win one of their remaining four's games to retain their trophy for a third time. They did so with ease and finished with a six-point advantage over Almería.

The Championship next goes to Almería in October, where Team Malaga will hope to make it four out four victories and continue their unbeaten streak.